This Tour de France unlike any other ends in a climate of suspicion.
While a preliminary investigation was opened on Monday targeting members of the Arkéa-Samsic formation, Tadej Pogacar's victory raises many questions.
An “extraordinary” performance on the clock
The young Slovenian's coup on the time of the Planche des Belles Filles left many skeptical.
Starting with his runner-up at the finish, Tom Dumoulin.
“My data was similar to my world title,” explains Roglic's teammate at Jumbo.
That's why I was all the more surprised that Pogacar was 1'21 '' faster.
I will never do that.
I can still earn 1% somewhere but not 5%.
"
On condition of anonymity, this other runner in the peloton also wonders: "It's not that he beats Dumoulin that surprises me the most, but that he blows up Carapaz on the sole climb of the Planche while the 'Ecuadorian only played the points of the mountain and had not drawn on his strength before the ascent.
"
Director of performance at Groupama-FDJ, Frédéric Grappe analyzed the data from the time trial.
“What Dumoulin said is very important,” says Grappe.
This already means that we cannot rely on the fact that others were tired.
On the rolling portion, Pogacar drives as fast as Dumoulin.
He only loses a second.
But he took 1'22 '' back on the climb!
While Dumoulin does not get stuck.
Some say Roglic has had a day without.
No, it is a day between 90 and 96% of its potential.
So Pogacar did an amazing thing.
"
Often very critical, Cyrille Guimard, this time goes against the tide.
“I have no doubts, his progression throughout the time trial is linear.
At the foot of the bump, he knew he was playing the Tour.
It boosts.
Let's stop with the story of his best time on Dumoulin.
He and Wout Van Aert have ridden 2,000 terminals in the lead since the start of the race.
Pogacar zero!
In France, there is this side
if you are foreign, you are charged.
If you are French you are a victim
.
The truth is that Pogacar remained in hiding most of the Tour.
"
An entourage that challenges
A boss (Mauro Gianetti) and a manager (Joxean Matxin Fernandez) within the UAE-Emirates Team who are dragging a few pans in several doping cases, a mentor and sports director (Andrej Hauptam) banned from starting on the 2000 Tour for a rate hematocrit too high… In his entourage, Tadej Pocagar relies on a few characters with a sulphurous past… “That people like that (Gianetti), or like others, are still in cycling today, it is unthinkable, rebelled Stéphane Heulot in Ouest-France.
We can never change the system if we do not change the men!
"
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Romain Feillu, also a former yellow jersey, has also stepped up to the plate.
“I have nothing against Pogacar, I would like to believe in him but there are still elements which give us the right to be skeptical, estimates the former sprinter.
Pogacar, he is unlucky, he comes from Slovenia, the country at the heart of Aderläss trafficking (
Editor's note: doping scandal
).
And there is his manager in whom I do not believe at all.
"President of the MPCC (Mouvement Pour un Cycliste Crédible) to which UAE-Emirates or Jumbo are not members, Roger Legeay recognizes that" twelve years after the Saunier-Duval affair (team excluded from the 2008 Tour), it is average that Mauro Gianetti is there… ”
Avenues to avoid suspicion
Frédéric Grappe nevertheless regrets this climate of suspicion: “I put myself in Pogacar's place.
I would be him, I would like a commission to say: there
you go, it's validated and we don't talk about it anymore
.
"The scientist proposes a method:" I hope that the UCI, or an agency, sets up a performance observatory and that at some point we take into account three data: biological longitudinal monitoring, the real measurement of performance thanks to to power sensors and performance simulation models.
By mixing the three, with the seasons and the age of the rider, we can finally go much further in the analysis.
But we do not move forward when we have all the tools.
And there are enough!
"
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Roger Legeay wants “a serious commitment from managers to go further than what the regulations impose.
“Saying
we do x checks per year and we are never positive
, that's not enough, adds the boss of the MPCC.
When you don't, all that's left is the past and it gets thrown in your face all the time.
"
